How to resolve ‘dyanamic disk’ partition error in Windows 7 Home Basic? While creating a partition in Windows through it’s own Disk management utility and following the wizard to “Create simple volume” (after initial processes have been done), I get this error mentioning dynamic disk and the task doesn’t get completed.

Thanks. How to create partition on the Windows? IS format option to be unchecked?

Hovsep A

February 18, 2014 at 9:44 am

Create a New Partition on a Windows 7 Hard Diskhttp://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/gg309170.aspx
well format options? File System Sets the file system type as FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. NTFS is selected by default in most cases. If you create a file system as FAT or FAT32, you can later convert it to NTFS by using the Convert utility. You can’t, however, convert NTFS partitions to FAT or FAT32

Oron J

February 17, 2014 at 12:16 pm

Can you be more detailed about two things please?
1. When exactly did the error show up? Was it during formatting, after formatting has been completed, or before the formatting stage altogether?
2. What is the exact error?

Drsunil V

February 17, 2014 at 4:27 pm

Thanks. While trying to create a partition ( to install windows 8 )
At time of completing 'New Simple Volume - wizard' on right click of unallocated space ( after shrink volume and unallocated space has been created ) in Computer - Manage , on Win 7 Home basic edition.
On final box of New Simple volume wizard , the query box tells - The operation you selected will convert the selected basic disk/s to dynamic disk/s. If you convert the disk/s to dynamic , you will not be able to start installed operating systems from any volume on the disk/s ( except the current boot volume ). Are you sure you want to continue?
I selected Yes and then an error box said = Dynamic disks are not supported on this operating system or server configuration. Dynamic disks are not supported on clusters.

Oron J

February 18, 2014 at 9:58 am

OK, if I understand the situation correctly, the problem is that you are trying to shrink the current system drive (C:) while the system is running. Microsoft's software only allows you to do change the size of dynamic partitions, so it's trying to convert the partition to a dynamic one, but it can't do so because it is the system drive and the disk management software does not allow you to change the active partition...

In other words, you can't do what you want with Microsoft's disk management software. However, other partition management software (Easeus, Paragon Software, Acronis, GParted) will let you achieve this, so I suggest you use one of those other packages instead.

Drsunil V

February 18, 2014 at 1:04 pm

Thanks. Please note , the resize/move partition has been done in EaseUs partition master. But it shows as unallocated space and right click shows create partition. The partition does not yet shown in computer drives. What next is to be done in EaseUS and can the next process in EaseUS be done even though resize/move partition option process was completed few days back?

Bruce E

February 18, 2014 at 3:25 pm

Unallocated disk space will never show up with the rest of the drives in Windows Explorer since unallocated space and unformatted partitions cannot have drive letters.

Partition creation can be done any time there is sufficient unallocated space on a drive. Formatting a partition can be done at any time on any existing partition (currently formatted or unformatted).

Has the partition resize/move operation been committed to the disk? I haven't used EaseUS for the task, but all of the other third-party partitioning tools I have used require you to "Apply' or 'Commit' the changes and all of them will keep the resize/move operation in the job queue until it completes successfully. In other words, you may not have any unallocated space on the disk yet because it failed to complete the previous operations.

Open up the Disk Management tool and after it refreshes the drive information, see if the partition really was resized. If it is not showing unallocated space on the drive, the EaseUS processes did not complete properly and need to be retried.

There should be a means to view any jobs currently in the EaseUS queue. Check to make sure that there is not one that says to 'Convert to dynamic disk' as this is normally a separate operation from any other which should not be done on Windows Home Edition and retry the resize operation again.

If the Disk Management tool indicates that you do have your unallocated space on the drive, you should be able to use it to create a partition and format it. And since you are planning on putting Windows 8 there, you don't even need to do those steps here. When installing Windows 8 on the system, you can simply select the Unallocated Space on the disk as the destination for your installation and the installer will automatically partition and format it for you.

Anonymous

February 19, 2014 at 3:50 pm

hi. There are no pending tasks shown in EasUS partition master.
Unallocated space is shown without drive letter

Win 8 installation cd did not show the unallocated space to install the sys into

The "Apply" process was completed and computer was rebooted.
It took about 25 minutes for partition process during reboot. But in win xp reboot the partition orocess took about 10 seconds as had
also been demonstrated in youtube video that partition process during reboot takes about 10 seconds

which lead me to think whether I selected wrong option to create partition using EaseUS!?

But now the unallocated space cannot be used for win 8 installation

How to allocate it drive letter and make it usable for installation?

Bruce E

February 19, 2014 at 11:23 pm

The unallocated space on the drive is a valid destination for your Windows 8 installation. Boot your Windows 8 installation DVD. When it asks where to install Windows, select the unallocated space. The installation process will properly partition, format, and assign a drive letter to the new partition it creates.

Dr.sunil V

February 20, 2014 at 4:37 pm

Please note that the unallocated space is not listed under "into drive target" during installation even though unallocated space is created and was applied

Bruce E

February 21, 2014 at 10:24 pm

In Disk Management, right-click on the Disk 0 block in the center section and select Properties from the context menu. Select the Volumes tab. What does it have for Partition style? I should say either 'Master Boot Record (MBR)' or 'GUID Partition Table (GPT)'. Also, how many volumes are listed at the bottom of the tab?

What I am thinking is that you have an MBR disk that already has its maximum of 4 partitions on it which is the only reason I can fathom for the installer not displaying the unallocated space as a valid destination for the installation. Either that or the unallocated space is not large enough to facilitate the installation of Windows 8.

A drive with MBR partitions can have a maximum of 4 primary partitions or 3 primary partitions and 1 extended partition (which can have more logical paritions inside it). You already have 4 partitions on the drive and cannot create any more since there is only room in the partition table for 4 entries.

The "blank" entry without a drive letter is a system partition that is used for booting the computer.

If you have created a recovery DVD set for this machine (via the tools provided by HP), you could delete the Recovery and HP Tools partitions; you just would not be able to use any in-place recovery mechanism. Instead, you would need to use the DVDs to rebuild the machine if it ever became necessary. Once those partitions are gone, you will be able to create another partition manually if you wish (or allow the Win8 installer to do it).

Drsunil V

February 25, 2014 at 5:25 pm

Thanks. Please tell how to delete partition? ( is it by right click - Delete ) or how else? Can the recovery and HP tools be copied to , and be used from dynamic drive C?

Bruce E

February 25, 2014 at 5:59 pm

You could copy them there, but they would be useless because of how the partitions are configured. They won't work from a standard partition since they use special partition identifiers. The HP Tools is generally marked as an OEM partition and the Recovery partition is marked as a recovery partition. If you want to get rid of them and still have the ability to recover the system to factory defaults, you must create the CD or DVD recovery sets.

To delete an existing partition, simply right-click on it and select Delete Partition. It will ask for confirmation. Be careful though. If you accidentally delete the wrong partition, it will take a thrid-party partition or disk recovery tool to get it back.

Drsunil V

February 27, 2014 at 9:48 am

Thanks. Would 25 GB suffice for Win 8 pro 64 bit with media center?

Bruce E

February 28, 2014 at 7:30 am

Yes. You should probably keep your media files on another partition though. My OS partitions are all lpretty small since the vast majority of my data is on other partitions or physical drives.

Drsunil V

March 1, 2014 at 4:43 am

Thanks Oron and Bruce. Please note that first 25% credit for this answer being "best" is to Oron and next 75% is to Bruce